Educating Girls to Do the World’s Work: Pacific Northwest Girls’ Educational Experiences, 1880s-1920s

• In Event: Education Reform at the Turn of the 20th Century

Abstract

In the last three decades of the nineteenth century in the United States the number of students attending secondary education increased five fold. As more American youth gained access to education, the number of female students increased dramatically. A policy surfaced in the early twentieth century in response to this feminization of secondary education, which largely took the form of differentiated instruction based on gender. The courses offered to girls reflected societal and community perceptions of worth and value based on gender, race and class. The Pacific Northwest girls’ schools in this study resisted this trend by embracing a form of vocational education that could have a more liberating impact on young women, offering professional opportunities in the public sphere.

Author

• Rebecca Christine Wellington, University of Washington - Seattle